Tech and Gadget News and Reviews

If you’ve tried working with multiple video and audio tracks in a non-linear editor, then you know what a challenge that it can be to sync up the audio wave forms among different tracks. It’s not necessarily hard to do manually, but it can be tedious and time consuming when you start piling on cameras and audio-recording sources.

Enter Singular Software’s PluralEyes.

Currently Singular Software has versions of the PluralEyes software for Final Cut Pro, Sony Vegas and Adobe Premiere Pro. Since I am using it with Final Cut Pro, that’s how I’ll be describing its functionality. Not that there’s much of a task list to get it working other than a couple of mouse clicks.

So, here are the basic instructions for using PluralEyes.

Create a sequence named pluraleyes.

Add the clips to the pluraleyessequence. They can be positioned anywhere in the sequence, as long as all the clips from the same camera (or audio recorder) go onto the same track.

Start PluralEyes. PluralEyes is a standalone application which is located in the Applications folder.

In the PluralEyes dialog, press the Sync button.

And that’s it. After it syncs up, you’re done. It’s sync’ed. Every single time that I’ve tried this, it has worked perfectly – even with up to 4 separate audio sources.

To get a better taste of how PluralEyes works, check out the following video from Phillip Bloom, which provides a nice walkthrough of the PlualEyes workflow.

Even better news – in the most recent version 1.2 beta of PluralEyes, you no longer have to rename your sequence to pluraleyes. Other good stuff in 1.2 beta gives you the option to replace audio for times when you have a single audio and video track – such as when you’re shooting with a 5D Mark II for video and a Zoom H4n for your audio track.

PluralEyes has taken a tedious and time consuming process and automated it. If you spend any amount of your time syncing up audio and video tracks, then you need to get this software. I highly recommend PluralEyes for anyone that fits in this category.

You can find out more about PluralEyes, purchase the full version, or download a 30-day trial or beta release on Singular Software’s website.